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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Cyber Law Of India Must Be Scrapped Says Praveen Dalal

Law and technology are never on the same page. While
law takes its own time to formulate and mature yet technology marches
at a speed much beyond the law to catch and grasp. The same is
happening in the case of Indian cyber law.

In the year 2000 a regulatory framework was
introduced by Indian parliament to regulate transactions in the
Indian cyberspace. India was new to this field and it considered the
models suggested by foreign countries. That is well understandable as
at that point of time India lacked the expertise in this regard.

However, what is frustrating is that even after 13
years of enactment of the information technology act, 2000, Indian
parliament still lacks the techno legal expertise to enact a proper
cyber law. According to media
reports, the cyber law of India is in a bad condition. The
Indian cyber law has started showing signs of decaying cyber law
legislation rather than a maturing enactment. Even the techno legal
experts have expressed their dissatisfaction with the present cyber
law of India.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New
Delhi based ICT law firm Perry4Law
and leading techno legal expert of Asia, the Cyber Law of India
should be repealed.
According to Dalal, the present Cyber Law of India is suffering from
many Irregularities
and Unconstitutionalities. He believes that the Cyber Law
of India must be scrapped and dedicated laws must be enacted for
various fields like Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Forensics,
E-Governance, etc.

These concerns are valid and genuine. The
information technology act started as a piece of legislation for
e-commerce and e-governance. Now it is transformed into an
instrumentality of state oppression and e-surveillance. However, the
real problem is how Indian parliament would enact these techno legal
frameworks that required sound techno legal expertise that is
presently missing.

Many provisions of the IT Act 2000 are violative of
civil
liberties protection in cyberspace. Some of the rules and
regulations made under the IT Act, 2000 are already challenges before
none other than the Supreme Court of India. It would be only prudent
if Indian government scraps the IT Act, 2000 and come up with
constitutionally valid legal framework.